Marvelous Monmouth

On previous trips to Wales I have only bypassed Monmouth before so when I finally made it over the River Monnow into the town I was pleasantly surprised. Always a good sign seeing a Waitrose and an M&S food shop, incase you need supplies!

The town itself has quite a nice buzz to it, lots of useful independent shops, I found a fabric & wool shop down a quirky pedestrian street with lovely floral bunting strung across. There's plenty of interesting architecture with an impressive town hall housing the museum.

Monmouth is also well served with eateries and pavement cafes. I had done my research before the trip and I read about a Mexican restaurant named Mocos. It turned out to be a good choice and it's always nice to find a good selection of veggie dishes and the option to choose mild, medium or hot spices. I had a huge platter with chimichangas and all the trimmings. Because this had been preceeded by a dish of nachos there was no way I could contemplate a pudding! It was certainly very nice.

Good coffee shop in S. Wales

Whenever on my travels I am always keen to champion local produce & good eateries etc. so there will be a few food and drink posts following my recent trip to South Wales.


I'll start with coffee because finding a good coffee shop is often like looking for a needle in a haystack. Unless you've had one recommended, and a good source of info for that is the Cosy Coffee Shops blog, the best way I've found is searching the net and seeking out reviews. 
I stayed just outside Monmouth and my research had pulled up Coffee#1 as the place to seek out.


First looked through the window when it was closed in the evening and the signs were good. There was no pre-ground coffee sat festering to be served up the next day. Tasteful and relaxing decor and nice menu of snacks.
Next morning visited about 9.30am and it was already doing a brisk trade, popular with locals and for take-outs. I tried a cappuccino and an espresso (nice touch with bottled Welsh water to help yourself to), both coffees were excellent tasting and not those over roasted dark beans a lot of places serve.
The cakes looked fabulous, I opted for the homemade Welsh cakes (as did most who came in), only 50p each and they were delic! some of the best I've had.


Coffee#1 is actually a small chain of cafes in the South West so I can only comment about the Monmouth one but having visited it a few times on my trip with consistently good coffee, they are cleary good at what they do and have well trained baristas.